Fullmetal Possible
by sweetPixiesmile
Summary: Kim and her brothers, are trying to get their bodies back, lost when trying to resurrect their deceased father. Kim becomes a State Alchemist of Armestris to gain access to state secrets, but stumbles across a terrifying plot that could destroy the world
1. Prologue

**Fullmetal Possible**  
_Introduction_  
_A Kim Possible/Full Metal Alchemist Fusion_  
_by sweetPixiesmile  
Rated M for disturbing scenes, language, adult situations and issues, and eventual slash pairings.  
Beta(s): None._

_A/N: So this thing's been niggling at me until I caved in and wrote this. It'll be an adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Fused with Kim Possible. I'm a slash author, so if that isn't something you like, you should probably stop reading this. I'm not into cutesy omakes to break the mood, so expect lots of angst and dark humour moments.  
_

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She ran, her hand clutching the scrap of paper she had found on her brothers' desk. Behind her, Joscelyn's high thin voice calling for Uncle Slim, fell behind as she sprinted down the dirt path, now mud in the heavy falling rain. She vaulted over the low stone wall that bracketed the road, and ran as fast as she could across the field, the tall green grass huddling under the falling drops. She left a broken trail behind her as she rushed towards the far house, three hills over.

Five miles.

The rain was the perfect companion to her tears.

Four miles.

The rain fell harder, stinging.

Three miles.

She slipped and fell, splashing into the mud filled trench by the road. She scrambled, her burning muscles and lungs twitching with fear.

Two miles.

The mud had washed off in the rain, but it couldn't wash away the gnawing terror.

One mile.

She skidded on the gravel in front of their house. She somersaulted over the ten steps, tucking and kicking out in a pike for more height. Her left foot landed, planting, all at once one with the immovable earth. Her right leg, swinging with the momentum of her leap, sizzling with the fire of the heavens. The door shattered, the wood splintering as her foot connected, the hinges squealing in useless protest as they bent and snapped. The door, cracked and shattered into pieces, flew in all directions. Her orange red hair flared as she passed into the darkness of the house.

Her eyes, full of hope and desperation, scanned the darkness of the open concept house, noting the furniture, jumbled up in a haphazard pile in one corner. On the cleared floor were two boys, two identical twins, kneeling before a complex circular design, their palms flat on the ground, their eyes alight with purpose and the flickering madness Kim had feared.

"Tweebs, STO-" was all she got out before a flash, as bright as the mid-day sun flared, turning everything white. Kim threw up her arm, screwing her eyes tightly shut, turning away from her brothers.

Until they began screaming.

Her eyes snapped open and her arm fell. In the bright light, she could see a monstrously large eye, a stark glimmering white against a pool of pervasive darkness that seemed to suck away the surrounding light. Hands, thin and emaciated, black as the darkness, rose from the iris of the crimson pupil, snaking along thin, tentacle like arms. They had wrapped around her two brothers, lifting their small bodies into the air, and wherever they touched the two struggling boys, the very fabric of their physical existence peeled away and unravelled, layer by layer, piece by piece. Their frightened, horribly bright eyes looked to her. Their hands reached out in supplication.

"Sis!"

"Help!"

"Sis!"

"Sis!"

"Si-"

She lunged forward, her hands reaching towards their grasping hands.

"Jim! Tim!" They disappeared, even as she brushed their fingertips with her own, a fraction of a second too late. The terrifying eye vanished, and with it, the last vestiges of what had been her brothers, her tweebs, her twin baby brothers.

She stumbled, her legs tangling in the clothing left behind by her brothers, and crashed to the floor.

"Jim, Tim!" she cried out, slamming a hand on the ground. She kipped up onto her feet and stared at the symbols closest to her. The Sun, for life and the body. The Moon, for the spirit. Her formulae, taken from her diary. Her obsession for the last four months.

"Dad..." And in the middle... she gasped in horror at the wheezing, pulsating thing. She choked on the bile that rose at the sight of the grotesque, suffering thing that was in the centre of the transmutation circle. She staggered sideways, stumbled backwards into the wall.

"No... no..." Tears streamed down her face as the thing twitched, puss and mucus fluids splattering on the wood floor as it coughed.

"The formulae were perfect," she mumbled. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"

The thing lay, it's ribcage split open, the organs twisting in and out of the mutilated flesh. Only a single arm seemed human, normal, and it stretched out towards her, the fingers brushing the inscribed circles. She shook her head in disbelief, her hands pressed to her mouth to suppress the scream that escaped as a horrified squeak. It was a caricature of her father, but as if he had been turned inside out, still alive.

"No, not like this..." but in that split second, her mind was made up.

"It's my fault... all my fault," The years of training with her master. The months after, hiding in secret as she read and researched and wrote and rewrote her formulae in her diary, her transmutation instructions. Her eyes feel on the empty clothing. She knew what had to be done.

She cast about urgently, her eyes searching, finding. Her hands pulled down the two antique armour sets _that damned woman_ had collected to the ground with a strength born of desperation. As they crashed down in a clatter, she bit down hard on her left index finger, until blood spurted. She had to hurry.

"Give them back," she growled as she wrote furiously. On the backplate, she drew the ward of holding. The circle for conjuration, the eight-rayed star for creation, encompassing all five elements. With her own life's blood she drew the upside-down curved mark for the Sigil of Beltaine, the Summoner, the Weaver of Souls. "They're my baby brothers, my tweebs!" Below, the symbol of her brother, Tim. Then the other, the same, with Jim's mark. She placed her hands atop each sigil. On her knees and put her hands, palm down, fingers splayed on the cold steel armour. She reached deep down inside herself, seizing the closed door inside herself and flung them open, connecting herself forcibly to the light beyond.

"Give me back my brothers, you bastard!" Who she was screaming at, she didn't know. A line suddenly described itself beneath her, stretching before and behind her. Then, suddenly the eye that had winked out as her brothers disappeared opened under her. She started in terror, but she suppressed it as the massive eye suddenly shifted, focusing on her.

"Give them back!"

Everything turned white.

The next thing she was aware of was waking. So cold. She was so cold.

As if from far away, she could hear blurred voices. They were frantic, frightened voices.

She gasped at the spikes of pain that woke her, briefly, as someone wrapped her body in a sheet and pulled it tight.

A shadow as shining a bright light in her eyes, waving painfully. She could smell the pungent flavour of tobacco. Uncle Slim. The high overwrought voice must be Joss. She wanted them to stop bothering her. She wanted to sleep. She was tired. So tired. So cold. Her right arm and left leg hurt so much, but she was tired. So very tired.

And then, sweet, blessed oblivion.


	2. Recovery  Part I

**Full Metal Possible**  
_Recovery, Part I_  
_A Kim Possible/Fullmetal Alchemist Fusion_  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

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"-make sure she's cleaned with a damp cloth everyday. If she doesn't wake in the next day or so, let me know."

"Thanks fer comin' by, Lev."

"Least, I could do, Slim."

"Joss, Ah'm gunna give Lev a proper send out, you keep an eye on Cousin Kim, alright?"

She waited until the heavy clump of adult footsteps faded before shifting, her back sore and stiff.

"Cousin Kim!" The happiness in the girl's voice slipped through her fogged consciousness. There was a click and a thud as the young girl threw open what sounded like the window. "Daddy, cousin Kim, she moved!" Kim risked opening her bleary eyes, squinting at the bright patches and dark blurs, that began to resolve themselves as her eyes adjusted. They resolved into three shapes, two towering gunmetal grey suits of armour, the other, a slim, auburn haired teen, her blue eyes dancing. She gripped the frame at the foot of the bed, jumping short hops, she could barely contain her happiness. Kim turned her face away from it.

"What... where am I?" she croaked. Joss practically danced to the bedside and picked up a glass. Kim wanted to hold the cup, but she felt so weak. It was like she was at the bottom of a whirlpool and everyone was at the other end. What she was seeing just didn't make sense to her. Her thoughts felt all jumbled, unpredictable and as unfocused as her eyesight.

"Sis..." Her head snapped back.

"Tim?" she rasped out, her throat burning from disuse. One of the suits raised it's hand, sheepishly. A long plume of white horse hair crowned two eye holes and a stylized visor of a fanged underbite. Her shock must have shown on her face as the other suit, one with a pot shaped, cross faced visor raised it's had as well.

"Hi, Sis."

"Jim, what... what's going on? Why are you..." She was confused. What was going on? weren't they having dinner at Uncle Slim's, tonight? Each of the suits of armour fell to their knees with a crash.

"We're sorry Sis!"

"So sorry!"

"No... it wasn't your fault. I..." she stopped, suddenly realized there was something wrong. She had instinctively reached out to grab the hands that bunched up her bed sheets. Her left held Jim's armoured fist tightly, but on the right, nothing happened. With a sick horror, she turned her head slowly and stared at the bandaged shoulder. Her arm was missing. Her arm wasn't where it was supposed to be. Where-

Kim closed her eyes. Her memory was starting to come back about that night. She knew what she had seen, what she'd given up.

"They... they took..." she sobbed out. Joscelyn's face clouded with alarm as tears rolled down Kim's face. "I... I... I..." she heaved out, trying to contain herself. Jim placed a massive gauntleted hand on her good shoulder.

"Sis!" Tim cried out. "No, it's not your fault, okay? It's not. We did it ourselves. We took it upon ourselves Your... your arm and... and leg, they were our fault."

"Yeah," Jim chimed in with a gentle shake. "If we hadn't tried..." But Kim had remembered. She'd seen the door. Saw "The Truth". And her transmutation circles weren't wrong... but they weren't enough. Her head was still aching from what she'd seen beyond the portal with the crowned tree of life, the seven canticles of Sephiroth and the Twelve Disciplines of alchemy. The door opening, the great red eye staring curiously at her, the black, tentacled hands snaking out and seizing her, drawing her into the darkness beyond the portal, that strange being smiling a tombstone grin. the vast streams of light, flickering. flowing past her, into her, through her. Crying out, screaming as her head filled with soundless knowledge, pounding her, cramming into her until she thought her head would burst like a smashed ripe tomato, her eyes popping out of their sockets. And then, through the pain, the searing impossibility of shining white light, a scent of oil and grease, a shape, and outline so like _him_...

"No... no, don't blame yourselves," she whispered, her head turning away from them towards the wall. It was torture, knowing that she had not known enough, or that the Tweebs had stopped reading her diary for fun. How many months had they been doing that? It wold have taken weeks to stockpile the ingredient elements."Not your fault..." Her vision was blurring again and she felt slightly sick to her stomach. The whirlpool was now insistent and was starting to sweep away her little space of stability. She'd seen almost grapsed the answer, and it was more painful than she could bear. As she faded, she had but one thought.

_My fault. All my fault..._


	3. Recovery Part II

**Fullmetal Possible**  
_Recovery - Part II_  
_A Kim Possible/Full Metal Alchemist Fusion_  
_by sweetPixiesmile_

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She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to face her brothers, with their endless, guilt driven enthusiasm. Or Joss's Possible cheerfully incessant chatter as she described her latest drive train or the latest advances in neurocondctivity and connectivity, or the latest experiments on bio-energy. She shifted the white sheets, twining the cotton in her clenched fists. She buried her face in her soft pillow, trying to will away her consciousness. Sleep was eluding her best efforts, and eventually she opened her eyes listlessly.

The small, spartan guest room had a small desk and chair snuggled up against an east facing window. at the foot of the bed, with another window set above the bed. Across from the windows was a door in the middle of the wall, flanked by a chair on the bed side and a wardrobe on the desk side. A small, oval rag-strip rug lay by the side of the bed. It was a familiar room to her. The tweebs had stayed with Uncle Slim many times before, and Kim had always accompanied them in fits or responsibility and a desire to save Joss from the two child geniuses. But then, Joss fit right in with the two boys, since their ages were the same, and a mechanical prodigy in her own right. She'd stayed here, in this room many times, since their father died. Her lips compressed at the thought.

She'd taken care of them before that, when they'd found his tall lanky frame lying unconscious amongst gears and motors of his trade as a government engineer and mechanic. Kim had always wondered why such a wonderful and intelligent man would choose to live in such a remote village near the border of the Ishval. He had made a good living, then, during the Ishvalese rebellion, repairing all manner of military contraptions, although the lines on his face would deepen with sadness when he repaired weapons. It was the isolation that nearly killed him; it had taken hours to get the doctor. The Doctor's face after examining James Possible had scared Kim even more than finding her father fallen on the ground.

James had linger for almost half a year. Kim had taken on all the house chores of cooking, cleaning and laundry, cutting into her time for alchemical study. She took her brothers to school, although their hearts weren't into it. She had helped feed him gruel, small spoonful by spoonful each time the sickness came upon him, worse and worse. She helped him to the toilet when he was took weak to walk the short distance. She bathed him when he was bedridden.

She could still remember the words he had spoken, in the clear morning light, his hand resting in hers, his skin sagging from weight loss, translucent from such a prolonged sickness, his veins and arteries sad and twisted trickles of what was once a great river of energy and flow.

"You'll always be my little rocket booster," he'd said, softly. His hand twitched and slowly, painfully, reached up to cup her cheek. She held it there as his strength failed. "Don't judge her too harshly. She's a good woman." She had puffed out her cheeks at that, and her father smiled. He coughed. No blood now, he was too weak. "Tell her... tell her I'm sorry, but I'm going on ahead..." He lay unconscious for three more days before his fluttering pulse guttered out.

A soft knock on her door drew her away from her train of thought and she tried to wipe away her tears bu after a moment, used her other hand and scrubbed the tears away with the back of her arm.

She turned her face, the stumps of her right arm and left leg a dull hazy ache against the backdrop of painkiller Doctor Lev had administered in an intravenous drip.

"Cousin Kim," came Joss's tentative voice. "Ken Ah come in?"

Kim said nothing but closed her eyes. Inside her, was a roiling dread and darkness, something she still didn't know or understand. Was it fear? Guilt? Shame? All she knew was that she wasn't sure if she could face the ones she had been responsible for, the ones she was supposed to take care of. She couldn't face her failure as a big sister to watch out for her little brothers. That she didn't know how to explain that the failure of the transmutation was her fault.

"Ah'm cummin in," Joss said and the door opened. Kim kept her face resolutely turned away from the young girl as she walked in. "Ah c'n see thet yer up." Kim could tell that Joss was pushing something. "Thought you'd like to git sum sun'r somethin'. Daddy's fixin' his four alarm chili bin workin' on it all day."

"Not hungry," Kim muttered. The bed jumped slightly as Joss sat down heavily on the edge of the mattress.

"Everyone's gotta eat," Joss replied cheerfully. "An' as incredible as y'all are, you too." Kim stayed silent. She didn't want to be rude to Joss; she was staying in her and Uncle Slim's house after all. But she felt that Joss was intruding one her somehow. Reducing her, taking something away from her. She knew it wasn't true but it was hard to push down the rising ire. So she stayed silent. Joss just sat there as long moments passed, and Kim wondered if the girl was ever going to take the hint and leave.

"Y'know," the auburn haired teen suddenly said softly, " yer brothers needs ya... they need to see ya." When Kim didn't react, she sighed and continued, her voice even lower. "They blame themselves, y'know? For wut there happened to ya."

"It's not their fault," Kim muttered, shifting uncomfortably.

"An it's yers?" The girl snorted. "You Possibles'r sure cut from the same wood. Even Daddy feels like he didn't keep enough of an' eye on ya." Joss leaned back on her hands. "He's jus' better at hiding it." There was another long moment of silence.

"Y'know, when mah parent's died, Ah didn't really know why they left me to go gallavanting off in a place like Ishval. Ah thought mebbe, it was me, that Ah'd done somethin to make them not come back, evah. I was mad. Jus' plain ornery. Bite'n other tykes, gettin' inta fights, snappin' at everyone, 'cause Ah didn't like who Ah was on the inside. Even when Daddy took me in, Ah took a long time for me to trust him. Took me even longer ter trust mahself. Ta like mahself. An' now? Ah'm proud Ah wuz a Rockbell, as proud as Ah am to carry the Possible moniker. And Ah'm proud of mah parents."

"And what's it to you, huh?" Kim snarled, turning angry eyes at the placid girl who raised an eyebrow at her. "You weren't abandoned! You were left behind, safe and sound, away from the war! It wasn't as if you pulled the trigger that killed your parents. But this... what happened to me is divine punishment. What happened to Jim and Tim is my fault, because I didn't know enough, didn't do enough alchemy. What happened to them is because of _my_ formulae!"

"An' yer formulae was wrong?"

"Well... no, not _wrong_-"

"An' it wuz you who forced yer brothers to attempt wutevah it wuz that did them there?"

"I didn't-"

"Or forced them ter read yer private diary?"

"It was as good as if I'd put the chalk in their hands myself."

"They knew y'all wuz achin' somethin' fierce. Didn't take'em long ter figure where ta go snoopin'." Joss leaned closer, her grey eyes full fo concern. Kim turned away from the kindness of it. "Look, Counsin Kim. Blame yerself all ya wan't. But wut yer doin' now? Makes you brothers think you blame them. Let 'em take care of ya, even if you feel you don't deserve it. 'Cause, Cuz...? They do." Kim's lips trembled as Joss's weight lifted off the bed and her footstep faded slowly towards the door.

The girl was right. She had a whole lifetime to be haunted by her own personal demons. But she shouldn't add to her brothers' burden's as annoying as they were.

"Joss," Kim mumbled as the door creaked open. She refused to look Joss in the eye, but was ablt to get the words out.

"Could you... help me get... cleaned up? And then ask my brothers to take me out for a... a walk."

"Sure, Cousin Kim."

She shoved down the feelings of shame and humiliation as Joss went to get a tub of hot water.


	4. Recovery Part III

**Full Metal Possible**  
_Recovery, Part III  
A Kim Possible/Full Metal Alchemist Fusion  
by sweetPixiesmile_

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The sky was a soaring, bright blue, with only a few wind brushed clouds stretching across its high expanse. Birds flew about, chirping their melodic messages to each other, trilling as they swooped and danced. In the distance, a dog barked.

Two huge ancient armours tramped along, one pushing a wheelchair, the other, carrying a load of firewood.

Kim was glad that Uncle Slim had sent them out for some exercise. Being cooped up in the house was bad enough. Being cooped up with her own recriminations and her brothers' attempts at hilarity was a special sort of torture. Add to that the fading of the last of the painkillers... yes, she was definitely glad for the distraction, even if her words were rare and seldom in the last few days. Her brothers hovered over her like worried hens, and she bit down her irritation, accepting that this might very well be her lot for the rest of her life.

As they strolled up the path, Jim walked off to put the firewood away while Tim pushed Kim around to the front of the house. Parked in the front was Kell, an elderly corporal who headed up the local military billets, his full white beard in stark contrast to his navy blue short jacket and long tunic. He was sitting in his old rickety wood plank wagon, pulled by a team of ancient mules, Aros and Sen. Kim felt a twinge, seeing old Kell. It would be the first person to see her since the incident. He turned from his seated position and started, seeing Kim in her wheelchair and the armoured suit pushing her.

"Good god," he gasped, scrambling out of the driver's bench, hobbling over as quickly as his old bones could go. He stopped in front of them. "Kim, what happened?" Kim turned her head away, her emotions bubbling up close to the surface.

"Alchemy accident." Tim's voice rung hollowly out of the suit of armour. Kell did a double take.

"T-t-tim?" he stammered.

"Hi Mister Kell," Tim greeted the old man. The old soldier grabbed his military cap from his white hair and stepped back, shaking his head.

"The things you youngsters get up to," he said, sadly. He knelt beside Kim. She lowered her head slightly, not willing to look the kind old man in the eyes. "There's a young whippersnapper of a colonel in Slim's right now, looking for you. Says she's looking for alchemical recruits. She thought you'd be a thirty-one year old man with military experience. Boy was she surprised when I told her you were only seventeen. Then she was worried that you might be married, being of marriageable age." The old man chuckled. "Go and see the colonel, Kim. She's not very nice, but she doesn't abandon people either. The army might not be a very safe place to be in, right now, but they have resources you can't imagine." He reached out and patted Kim's arm.

Tim lifted her gently out of the wheelchair and put her on the steps up to the house. He returned for her after setting up the chair on the top step, while Kell clucked and watched her below. Along with the larger body, Jim and Tim had gained an inhumane amount of strength and endurance, limited only by the flexibility and strength of the armour. He cradled her in his cold arms, careful not to jostle her as they mounted the steps to the patio that fronted the living area of the Possible Automail Shoppe before putting her in the chair. He pause to wave at Corporal Kell before opening the door.

A black and white mottled dog scampered out, his tail wagging madly, but sensing Kim's mood, immediately settled for putting a leg on Kim's single leg. The stench of his breath was terrible, but his cocked, concerned head was a welcome sight. Kim's lips twitched. This time, the dull ache of her right shoulder reminded her not to use her missing arm. She scratched behind his ear for a moment.

"C'mon Den," Tim said, moving the dog away fso that they could enter the house. The dog whuffed amiably and followed them. Inside the long corridor that stretched into the house, Kim could see Joss chatting amicably with a young blond girl. Tim wheeled the red head in and the stranger in military uniform nearly dropped her tea when her eyes lifted, starting up partially at the sight of the injured teen. Joss turned at the reaction.

"Cousin Kim! There's a high an' mighty lieutenant colonel want'in ta see ya," Joss said, not missing a beat. "They's in the kitchen." At Kim's lack of response, Tim pushed the wheelchair to the kitchen door. The blond's blue eyes watched them but said nothing as Tim opened the door to bring Kim into the kitchen.

The lieutenant colonel had generous lips and chest and was standing by a window. A steaming cup of tea sat before the place of honour, reserved for guests. Uncle Slim sat in a chair facing them as they rolled in, his eyes worried, a pipe clenched in his teeth. Her blue uniform, with its shoulder braids and insignia gleamed in the afternoon light. She couldn't have been much taller than Kim, but she carried herself with an air of command and confidence that she would have envied. The career soldier turned at their entry and her eyes gleamed dangerously.

"Hey K," said Lieutenant Colonel Bonnie Rockwaller, her large cerulean eyes cold and haughty. "I'm here to collect you for the tryouts. _Hate 'em_," she singsonged. "And your house is a mess. What _have_ you been doing?"


	5. Recovery Part IV

**Full Metal Possible**  
_Recovery, Part IV  
A Kim Possible/Full Metal Alchemist Fusion  
by sweetPixiesmile_

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"You know," the girl looked down her nose at the miserable red head. "I thought you were going to be some frumpy middle-aged, saggy breasted woman with three kids and another bun on the way," she said, flourishing a roll of papers and tapping them on her pursed lips, "and not some skinny, banged up, half-girl." When Kim didn't reply, she continued. "I stopped at your house. Didn't care for the decor, there was way too much _red_. Just what were you doing there anyway?"

"Well,... you see,..." Tim stammered. At that moment, Jim entered the kitchen from the back door. The brown haired colonel's eyes flicked between the two metal suits, before she looked down at the morose and withdrawn red head.

"Quite the collection of freaks you have there, K," she said, airily. Kim said nothing, but a glint entered her eyes. How dare this pompous, stuck up,... big boobied girl come in and say these things about her brothers and herself, as if she knew who they really were! The lieutenant colonel flounced onto her chair and dangled the tea from her fingertips carelessly.

"Well, _fine_. You're obviously talented enough if you can get yourself into this mess. I'm here to recruit you. In fact, I'm in charge of all alchemist recruitment right now," she said, preening prettily as if that would impress Kim. Kim grimaced to herself, because it did, and it rankled. "If you pass the exams, you'll have access to a pretty impressive expense account... moderated and scrutinized by my staff, of course, and also based on your number of successful missions. At the same time, you'll get access to restricted research and libraries of Armestris' Alchemical Academies, as well as blacked out and intelligence reports. In return," Bonnie paused meaningfully, watching her face intently, "you follow orders from your superior. _That_... would be _me_."

"I thought the military was supposed to help people?" Tim asked.

"Oh, _sure_, _that's_ what we do."

"Y'all talk a purty picture there, Miss Dog of the Military," Slim leaned forward, puffing slowly from his pipe, "but ya sure ya want these here kids? Ya think they's good 'nough?"

The feral, predatory grin almost pierced through her haze of self-loathing and pity, but the next words caught her attention.

"You know," the brown haired officer waved the teacup negligently, "with the bulk of Armestris' alchemy and technology at your disposal, I suppose you might find a way to return your bodies to normal. Well, maybe. That is if that transmutation circle in your house... human transmutation, right? And the affixation of souls to inanimate armour... yeah, they just might be able to do it."

Slim puffed on his pipe for a few moments before answering.

"After Jim 'n Tim showed up with Kim there wrapped in a blanket, all bloody and the way they were, Ah went over to see just wut in tarnation they were up to." Kim's eyes widened. He saw it. He saw it and never said anything, she realized. "Wutever it was that I buried in the back of their house... it t'wernt human at all." He leaned back into his chair and jabbed his pipe in the officer's direction. "Lewtenant Colonel Bonnie Rockwaller. Is that what this is all about? You seen wut alchemy's done to them. And you want them to do that again?"

"Gawd!" Bonnie laughed. "Don't be so _pissy_! _I'm_ not going to make them do _anything_. They can sit here and rot, for all I care," she waved her hand dismissively. "Armless, legless, with brothers just stupid pieces of metal and leather... yeah, you could do that." She paused again for effect. "But just what if there was even the slightest chance you could help your brothers? Well, some wouldn't bother. _I_ know I _wouldn't._ But then, I'm not just _anybody_." She put the cup back down on the table and stood.

"Well, like I said, your loss." She stood and put an envelope on the table. "If you decide to become a state alchemist, this should help. Let me know, and I'll sponsor you." Without another word, she opened the door and strode out of the kitchen.

"Let's go, T," they heard her say from where they sat.

"Miss Tara? Name's Joscelyn."

"'Kay Joss! Mind if I call you Joss? It was great talking with you. Maybe next time, I'll treat you to some tea?"

"Tara, I should _not_ be _waiting_!"

The thud of their boots scuffing the floorboards faded as the front door opened and shut with a clack.

Jim and Tim stood awkwardly by her as Slim continued to puff away at his pipe. A rising tide was filling Kim, something so big and wide and deep that she thought she would burst at the seems. Power and energy poured into her, as if those words had become a magical talisman. Just for the slightest chance you could help your brothers...

"Uncle Slim?" The weatherbeaten, careworn face that sported a grey tinged dark brown handlebar moustache turned his eyes toward her. He knew what she was going to say.

"Give me the best automail you have. I'm going to become a state alchemist!"


End file.
